iPad 4 and MacBook Pro Retina displays - a god send for KC?

[JoshWilliamson]

Hi there, I thought I would just post a recommendation. Last week I bit the bullet and purchased an iPad 4 due to the high resolution retina display. I felt that this could help my tired, fatiqued and dry eyes, and it has. I enjoy web browing and watching films, but after many many years of using PC's, laptops (and more recently Smart Phones) I have never found a screen which has been kind to my KC. After a bit of research, and drawing on my own experiences, I have come to the conclusion that screen resolution is what causes most of my computer related KC symptoms. Making fonts larger is pointless if the screen resolution isn't high enough, the flicker is still going to leave my eyes strained and fatigued, and as a consequence, red and watery. Also, have you ever felt in a slight trance after spending 45mins+ in front of a monitor? That would be the flicker from the screen resolution (well that's my hypothesis) and I know in my case this usually leads to a zombie like state where I forget to blink my eyes regularly, leading to a bad case of dry eye.

Now to the good stuff. Personally I feel reading off the iPad4 is up there with reading from paper as the screen is so sharp and precise. I have spent many hours in a day on it and my eyes have felt absolutely fine. A great feature is you can adjust the brightness, so I have mine set quite low and even lower before bed. Bright lights are awful for eye strain, especially for us light sensitive KC sufferers. Fonts are easy to make large when browsing which is handy (especially if I haven't got my contact lenses in). For the tech minded of you, the iPad4 has a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution 9.7inch screen with low black level and precise colour accuracy. It's certainly the most high tech screen I've used yet anyway, and I love the colour accuracy as the screen feels very natural. And of course, it's just an awesome bit of kit in general for web browsing and entertainment.

At the risk of sounding like a sales rep for Apple, I wholeheartedly recommend you purchase one if you struggle with computer screens like I have. That probably goes for the MacBook Pro too which has a retina display, I tried one in the apple store and was very impressed. I purchased my iPad4 on a buy now pay in 9 months from Argos (using their Argos store card) so it's possible to get one if you are short of money at the moment.

[Andrew MacLean]

Hmmmmm

Actually I agree; I also have an iPad with the retina display and it is a great help.

Other tablet computers are available.

Andrew

[JoshWilliamson]

Yup, I hear the Nexus 10 has an even better screen resolution than the iPad4, so also worth checking out

[andytraill]

I agree, I've got a Nexus 4 phone and it really is great to use (which is or similar resolution). For £240 sim free don't break the bank either (for a smart phone anyway).

[eyepod]

Interesting conversation thread....

I also recently purchased an iPad for similar reasons but my main issue is reading and using the computer when my contacts are out and I'm wearing specs as I struggle with being able to read clearly! One other feature of the iPad which seems to help quite a bit is the 'inverse colours' in the accessibility menu. Sometimes this can make a big difference when the background is black and there's a lot less glare! Maybe you can do this with Android based tablets also but I don't know! The downside is that photos etc are all displayed in the wrong colours but it's easy to change back to normal!

[Mousework]

Hi there, I thought I would just post a recommendation. Last week I bit the bullet and purchased an iPad 4 due to the high resolution retina display. I felt that this could help my tired, fatiqued and dry eyes, and it has. I enjoy web browing and watching films, but after many many years of using PC's, laptops (and more recently Smart Phones) I have never found a screen which has been kind to my KC. After a bit of research, and drawing on my own experiences, I have come to the conclusion that screen resolution is what causes most of my computer related KC symptoms. Making fonts larger is pointless if the screen resolution isn't high enough, the flicker is still going to leave my eyes strained and fatigued, and as a consequence, red and watery. Also, have you ever felt in a slight trance after spending 45mins+ in front of a monitor? That would be the flicker from the screen resolution (well that's my hypothesis) and I know in my case this usually leads to a zombie like state where I forget to blink my eyes regularly, leading to a bad case of dry eye.

Now to the good stuff. Personally I feel reading off the iPad4 is up there with reading from paper as the screen is so sharp and precise. I have spent many hours in a day on it and my eyes have felt absolutely fine. A great feature is you can adjust the brightness, so I have mine set quite low and even lower before bed. Bright lights are awful for eye strain, especially for us light sensitive KC sufferers. Fonts are easy to make large when browsing which is handy (especially if I haven't got my contact lenses in). For the tech minded of you, the iPad4 has a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution 9.7inch screen with low black level and precise colour accuracy. It's certainly the most high tech screen I've used yet anyway, and I love the colour accuracy as the screen feels very natural. And of course, it's just an awesome bit of kit in general for web browsing and entertainment.

At the risk of sounding like a sales rep for Apple, I wholeheartedly recommend you purchase one if you struggle with computer screens like I have. That probably goes for the MacBook Pro too which has a retina display, I tried one in the apple store and was very impressed. I purchased my iPad4 on a buy now pay in 9 months from Argos (using their Argos store card) so it's possible to get one if you are short of money at the moment.

I find you comments quite amusing I have used a retina display since iphone 4 came out, and i use IMAC with a retina display. Actually i found there to be no differents infact it has been worse. The occupational nurse said i need to order this special covering. Screen type makes no differents

[Andrew MacLean]

Different people, different experience. As one of our optometrists is wont to say, Keratoconus is a bespoke condition.

[JoshWilliamson]

Hi there, I thought I would just post a recommendation. Last week I bit the bullet and purchased an iPad 4 due to the high resolution retina display. I felt that this could help my tired, fatiqued and dry eyes, and it has. I enjoy web browing and watching films, but after many many years of using PC's, laptops (and more recently Smart Phones) I have never found a screen which has been kind to my KC. After a bit of research, and drawing on my own experiences, I have come to the conclusion that screen resolution is what causes most of my computer related KC symptoms. Making fonts larger is pointless if the screen resolution isn't high enough, the flicker is still going to leave my eyes strained and fatigued, and as a consequence, red and watery. Also, have you ever felt in a slight trance after spending 45mins+ in front of a monitor? That would be the flicker from the screen resolution (well that's my hypothesis) and I know in my case this usually leads to a zombie like state where I forget to blink my eyes regularly, leading to a bad case of dry eye.

Now to the good stuff. Personally I feel reading off the iPad4 is up there with reading from paper as the screen is so sharp and precise. I have spent many hours in a day on it and my eyes have felt absolutely fine. A great feature is you can adjust the brightness, so I have mine set quite low and even lower before bed. Bright lights are awful for eye strain, especially for us light sensitive KC sufferers. Fonts are easy to make large when browsing which is handy (especially if I haven't got my contact lenses in). For the tech minded of you, the iPad4 has a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution 9.7inch screen with low black level and precise colour accuracy. It's certainly the most high tech screen I've used yet anyway, and I love the colour accuracy as the screen feels very natural. And of course, it's just an awesome bit of kit in general for web browsing and entertainment.

At the risk of sounding like a sales rep for Apple, I wholeheartedly recommend you purchase one if you struggle with computer screens like I have. That probably goes for the MacBook Pro too which has a retina display, I tried one in the apple store and was very impressed. I purchased my iPad4 on a buy now pay in 9 months from Argos (using their Argos store card) so it's possible to get one if you are short of money at the moment.

I find you comments quite amusing I have used a retina display since iphone 4 came out, and i use IMAC with a retina display. Actually i found there to be no differents infact it has been worse. The occupational nurse said i need to order this special covering. Screen type makes no differents

Sorry to hear that retina displays haven't worked for you.

You may find my comments quite amusing but I'm only giving my experience and for good reason too, there are various articles online which suggest that screen quality/resolution impacts eye health.

Without trawling too deeply, this article (below) explains perfectly what I tried to express in my original post. It describes how the retina display is better for the eyes because, a) it has a high pixel per inch ratio and, b) the high resolution display reduces the light/dark borders between the pixels, giving our eyes less to focus on and thus reducing eye strain. In effect, as the article suggests, it's like reading word for word from paper. I couldn't agree more.

http://interchangeproject.org/2013/01/1 ... e-reading/

[Mousework]

do you know this link you provided is actually sponsored by apple?, the nurse said many people with karatoconus experience similar problems. As nurse said there is no proof retina displays will help a person with KC

[JoshWilliamson]

do you know this link you provided is actually sponsored by apple?, the nurse said many people with karatoconus experience similar problems. As nurse said there is no proof retina displays will help a person with KC

There is no proof that the article is sponsored by Apple, just a speculative remark posted by somebody in the comment section that claims it is (probably an Apple hater, there are plenty about). If you're interested there is a link in the article to this - http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones ... a-display/ - in which a PHD retinal neuroscientist compares screens and concludes that retina displays are an improvement.

Anyway, lets agree to differ. It doesn't work for you, fine. But it works for me and 1 or 2 others in this thread, great. I could trawl the Internet finding empirical scientific studies supporting my claim that screen resolution impacts eye health (which is surely a bad thing, especially if you suffer from KC), but that would be pointless if basically all screen types impact upon your KC. As Andrew says, it's a bespoke condition, what works for me may not work for you and that's ok. Your nurse might be right in saying that many people with keratoconus experience similar problems, but that may not be true of every KC patient.

Therefore I still recommend the retina display to other KC sufferers. Visit the Apple store and try a display model, you never know, it could work for you.